What’s typically the biggest gripe of rational thinking people when confronted with a lefty loon bashing them simply for thinking different from them? The usual answer is that when said lefty loon is asked what exactly it is about your opinions that they don’t like, they don’t have any specific idea, except that you don’t in line with their ideology/religion.
In what is quickly becoming a viral video, Barstool Sports founder and owner Dave Portnoy was confronted by a pizza owner that didn’t much care for Portnoy, basically because the New York Times told him to hate him.
Portnoy was simply doing his usual, daily “One Bite” pizza review, this time at Somerville, Massachusetts establishment, Dragon Pizza. Well, he got more than pizza when the owner of the restaurant confronted Portnoy immediately after a poor pizza review.
For context, because Portnoy is such a champion of small businesses — and was particularly helpful during the pandemic — he doesn’t like to give ridiculously low scores that would hurt the business he’s reviewing.
Portnoy gave Dragon Pizza, which he thought had a little too much parmesan cheese on it, a 6.4 out of 10 score. Not great, but not business crushing. For more context, yours truly watches Barstool’s pizza reviews every day, so I understand the scoring scale.
Right after scoring Dragon’s pizza offering, and almost immediately following a pedestrian telling Portnoy she loves him for what he does, the owner came out to self-righteously confront him.
“I hope you enjoy your pizza, but I don’t appreciate what you do to small businesses,” the owner said.
“Well, I help them,” Portnoy responded.
“I don’t see it that way,” the owner said with an attitude as he walked away.
Big mistake.
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For even more context, during the pandemic Portnoy did nothing except try and help small businesses who were affected by lockdowns and restrictions. Both he and restauranteur Guy Fieri raised millions for small businesses across the country through The Barstool Fund and Fieri's charity.
But, that wasn’t the end of this confrontation. The owner decided it would be a good idea to come back out and confront Portnoy again. In this instance, it got really heated.
“Let me be clear,” the owner began, “don’t stand in front of my business.”
“Let ME be clear,” Portnoy began his retort, “f**k you!”
The pair exchanged expletives, and the owner kept saying how Portnoy hurts small businesses.
“By the way, I’ve raised $50 million for small business,” Portnoy said to the owner.
“You’re all talk, dude,” the owner said in response.
The owner then revealed his bias by citing a New York Times article. But when Portnoy pushed back, asking the owner to give him one example of why he hates Portnoy so much, the owner just continued his ad hominem attack without being able to give a single example.
Sounds about right.
The episode in question was filmed a couple of weeks ago, but Portnoy films multiple reviews in a single day, so they get released in order.
(Warning: Strong Language)
Portnoy did an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson in his latest “Tucker on X” episode and spoke about the incident, which hadn’t aired at the time of the interview.
“That guy went out of his way to pick a fight with me,” Portnoy told Carlson. “And he knows nothing about me, clearly. His one complaint, ‘I’m bad for small business.’ Even my most ardent haters have never said I’m bad for small business.”
“I would sit down and have a conversation, but this is what we’ve become — honestly — in this country,” Portnoy also said. “You scream at each other for no reason.”
Ep. 21 Dave Portnoy founded Barstool Sports and just completed the most impressive business transaction of our lifetime. He also just got into an epic fight and shared the video with us first. Watch. pic.twitter.com/W7AJ10kZni
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) August 31, 2023
If this guy thought he was helping his business by confronting who the New York Times told him to think is the boogeyman, he’s sadly mistaken. Maybe if he made better pizza, this could’ve been avoided. Although, to be fair, the way the owner confronted Portnoy, he was looking for conflict through some convoluted exercise in virtue signaling.
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